Four encouraging trends in craft beer

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I sometimes have complained about certain aspects of craft beer culture. Today I come to praise other facets I've witnessed recently — some that have turned back the more negative trends that earlier had poisoned, culturally, the craft beer well, so to speak.

So without further ado, here are four positive aspects I've noticed over the past few years or so (in ascending order, according to my appraisal):

4) Steady, even strong, growth, even in hard economic times : lot of industries have been hit hard over the past decade for reasons we are all too familiar with. This is clearly not the case with craft beer. In the past few years, the industry's growth rate (in volume sold) has been 5.8 percent (2008), 7.2 percent (2009), 12 percent (2010), and 13 percent (2011). Craft beer has also had more than a decade of steady growth in this young century.

Clearly someone—maybe almost everyone—is doing something right. You don't post continual double digit sales increases without a lot of efficiency and innovation. That latter aspect brings us to our next trend:

3) Experimentation and pushing of boundaries: Although it's always been the case that if you stand still, the world will pass you by, but the speed with which that happens these days is increasingly rapid. Just look at how, in five short years, the iPhone and smart phones that use Google's operating system have raced by the once-dominant Blackberry. One huge reason craft beer has continued to grow while many other members of the alcohol sector have flatlined is that craft brewers have not been satisfied to rest on old recipes, or even conform to standard style categories.

By knocking down useless, sometimes vestigial, walls, craft brewers have opened up their world to many more people, a facet that brings us to No. 2 on this list:

2) Diversity of audience: Even just a decade ago, I whined about how the craft beer crowd seemed dominated by white males. And while that aspect still holds sway, the number of women and people of color (and various combinations thereof) drinking craft beer seems to have grown quite a bit in the past five or so years. While this welcome trend is largely anecdotal, I pay attention to such details when I'm out having a beer and I'd bet this increasing diversity, while maybe not huge, is steady. And while diversity sometimes brings clashes as worlds collide, in the craft beer world it has further nurtured the culture's biggest strength, which just happens to be No. 1:

1) Camaraderie: While there are still too many beer snobs with agendas and condescending attitudes, the overriding trend in the craft beer universe is to share and exchange knowledge. Inclusiveness and expanding the big tent is the rule now, thanks to industry leaders like Jim Koch, Sam Calagione, Garrett Oliver, and Greg Koch. These brewers preach an anti-snobbery gospel that encourages craft beer aficionados to foster connections and collaboration. And I say "Cheers" to that.